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On May 7th, 1915, the RMS Lusitania cruise liner sank in 18 minutes after being torpedoed by a German submarine, the U-boat U-20.

The Germans claimed that it was a legitimate military target, whereas the British argued that it only carried civil passengers. For many years, the latest was the accepted version and, spite of wartime secrecy and a propaganda campaign to ensure all blame fell upon Germany, a 2008 diving expedition revealed that the Lusitania was loaded with a large quantity of war materials.

That explained the rapid sinking of the ship that led to the tragic death of 1.198 people, only 18km off the Old Head of Kinsale, in the Irish coast.

Here’s a MaxSea TimeZero screenshot showing the sinking spot (51°25′N 8°33′W according to Wikipedia) with an image of the lighthouse nearby posted by a MaxSea user through Panoramio:

Among the victims were 120 American citizens, a fact that triggered the entering of the US into the First World War. The exploration team, financed by American businessman Gregg Bemis, estimates that around 4 million rounds of US-manufactured Remington .303 bullets lie inside the Lusitania at a depth of 91 meters. Besides the only torpedo who hit the hull, some of the 764 survivors reported a second explosion which might have been munitions going off.